Ontario, OR-Day Two and Three

We discovered in planning for this trip that Scott has always thought Grandma had lived in Ontario, Canada during her high school years.  So a number of us learned some new things about Mom Hall because of this trip.

We had driven around the town a bit on Friday night as we looked for a place to eat dinner, but Saturday morning we headed out to find the farm and then the high school she attended.  Although the city had really changed Mom Hall had figured out the right directions after studying things out her hotel window.  I wasn't sure how that was possible when I looked out her window, but she was able to take us right where we wanted to go.

Gary was a great driver....he would go get the
motorhome and drive up to the hotel door
every time we were going and drop us off
when we got back.  Very handy if there was no
parking places...which really wasn't much of
a problem in Ontario, OR.

The county road Mom lived on.
This was the spot where she waited for the bus.

The countryside

Some of us walked along the road while they followed us.

The "swimming" ditch
I like to swim and I know my own mom
swam in such ditches in western Oregon,
but I am not sure I would be swimming in that water.

Vonette and Charon documenting moments, too.

Country mailboxes

This is the spot where the house was,
but this is a newer one.



 One of the fun things about being there is hearing the stories which she remembered as we walked around.  This lane which ran in front of her house led to a friend's home.  They had some mean geese so whenever she would go down that way she would try to remember to take a kitchen towel to shoo them away when they started to chase her.  I was so glad that Gary and Jena were there to hear these little stories, too.

Posing by the swimming ditch

Still raise cows in the pasture

Charon, Valerie, Vonette, Grandma Hall and Jena

 One of the great things about this trip was that Jena got to spend time with her aunts in a different way than ever before and she wasn't sharing them with other cousins or children.  She loved it.  She enjoyed the funny things that they did and the jokes that were shared.  They got to know her better as well.  It was fun to see her start laughing at them when they were being silly.  I don't think she knew how silly her aunts could be.  It was great. 

Yes, I was actually there, too.

Still farm land

Grandpa Hall loved John Deere tractors and I thought
of him when I saw this tractor in a field.

Vonette and Charon hid in the corn field.
It was amazing how quickly they could
be hidden in the thick stalks.

Valerie getting a close up of them peeking out of the corn.
Jena thought this was hilarious.

In our drive around town on Friday night, we saw this shop but it was closed so we headed back to it. I was hoping to find a nice picture of the nearby farmland but they really didn't have anything like I wanted.  However I did buy this shovel for my garden although I had forgotten that I had taken a picture of it until I uploaded the pictures to the blog today.

We also headed to her high school Saturday morning.  We pulled up and were amazed to see these two cars in the parking lot.  I believe that they were actually later 1950s models but they were in perfect condition complete with letterman jackets and a year book in the back seat.  Not sure why I took lots of pictures of the red car and not one complete picture of the black one but they were fun to look at up close.

 In turned out that the cars belonged to a couple of members of the Class of 1968 which was also having a reunion that weekend actually at the school.  So we were able to go into the building and walk the halls of where she went to school.  Things have been updated and added to and changed over the years, but some of the rooms were the same.  It was fun to talk to some of the people there who were from the area so they could tell us a bit about the changes to the school over the years. We couldn't have timed our visit there better.

Now I said this trip was perfect and that was almost true.  Gary and I had searched through the hotel information and the phone book to figure out some options for activities in the area for Saturday afternoon.  We had found some information about a Zipline course in nearby Idaho and we decided that would be a fun afternoon adventure.  We headed off following the directions in the phone book and on our phone.  It didn't look that far and actually wasn't as the crow flies, but in the small towns and byways of back hills Idaho, it turned out to be a bit longer of a ride than we expected.  It was a pretty drive, but after 7 hours on Friday and knowing we were heading back on Sunday, we weren't actually looking for more travel time in the motorhome.

The Snake River again

The first LDS Church we saw which was in a small
community in Idaho

 And we finally made it to Horseshoe Bend, Idaho and found the location for Zip Idaho...only to find out that we needed to make reservations and that they were full until 2:30 and they only had room for 3 at that time.  Oh, well....another reason to make a trip to Boise.  It looks like it would be fun. 

We were very hungry by then so Gary headed out a different direction to see if we could find a fast food place for lunch.  No luck so we finally stopped at a city park and had a picnic.  One advantage of a motor home---you can travel with more food than just a cooler.

A beautiful tree

A bridge across the little stream

Gary with his mom and sisters and Jena peeking out between the railing

And for some reason this city park like many in America
had a tank parked in it.  No one wanted to walk over and have
their picture taken with it.

Despite the' out of the way' and disappointing trip in the afternoon we made it back in town for everyone to get cleaned up and ready to walk Mom Hall over to her reunion.  Our hotel was just around the corner from the restaurant where the reunion was being held--Killian's. On our way down in the elevator a man and his wife got on also dressed for dinner.  However it wasn't until later Mom Hall discovered that he was also in her class and she had dated him.  Now at 78, he had a long ponytail down his back.  Neither one had recognized each other in the elevator. 

We walked her in and then headed off to run some errands and then went back and ate dinner at the same place and sat and talked until the reunion was over.  Both Gary and Valerie went and peeked in the room and saw that Mom was having a great time talking with her old friends.  She said that they had said that this was the last reunion as they were all getting too old for such things.  About 1/3 of the class was there, 1/3 not there, and the other 1/3 had passed away.  We were all very glad that she had decided to come and that we all had been able to come.

The last picture is some windmills along the freeway on the way home.  I had a migraine during the night on Saturday so I slept most of the way home in the upper bed of the motorhome.  It was a pleasant trip back.  Thanks to my mother-in-law and my sisters-in-law for all making the effort to come on this trip.  I am so glad I went and also that Gary and Jena were there to enjoy it as well....we will need to do it again next year (and of course I am already thinking of the possibilities!)

Mom Hall's 60th Class Reunion--Day One

Last spring Mom Hall mentioned that she had received an invitation to her 60th class reunion in Ontario, Oregon.  She had moved there with her mom (Edith) and her brother Joe when her mom married Dewey Brown when she was 13.  For those who are not familiar with Oregon cities, it is located in eastern Oregon just across the border from Boise, Idaho.  In fact, Ontario and most of that county are in Mountain time instead of changing to Pacific time like the rest of Oregon.  It was a farming community and they lived on a farm north of the town.  There was 106 seniors in her graduating class and they have held reunions every five years since 1953.  Gary's parents have attended many of them together over the years so have kept in contact with her high school friends. 

She had not gone to the last one because it was the year that Gary's dad had passed away.  I am not sure who suggested the idea first but between the sisters we mentioned that we would be happy to go with her this year if she wanted to go.  It wasn't an easy decision as going alone was a bit scary, but she decided that she wanted to go sometime in the summer and so we started making plans.  It turned out that all three of his sisters wanted to go.  That meant five women traveling by car and none of us with mini-vans any more.  Gary came up with the idea of taking the motorhome.  I thought that was overkill for a three day two night trip and actually I wondered if bringing Jena and Gary would make it different.  I was so wrong.  It was so fun and it was perfect (at least from my opinion.).  I am so glad that we had a chance to go in Ontario and to hear and see some of the places for her teenage years.  And I am really glad that Gary and Jena got to have the experience with us.

Now the blow-by-blow:

This is the same freeway we took last year on our way to Seattle,  Washington, and for those dedicated readers and good memories, you will remember that we stopped at a bridge in Twin Falls which had appeared on a list for the 6 best bridges in the US--Perrine Bridge.  We decided to share that experience with Gary's sisters and mom.  I was a bit apologetic because I wasn't sure if they would think it was worth stopping, but it was just as fun the second time and I loved sharing it with them.  (Warning more bridge pictures):

I like fences, too.
The view toward the west.

Vonette, Charon, and Valerie
We suggested to them that walking across
the bridge was a good idea.
Jena, Grandma Hall, and Gary
took the motorhome across the bridge
and waited for us (actually they got lunch
from McDonalds)

The bridge



We first noticed the target to the
east of the bridge across the river
from us.  You can't see them but there were
some par gliders down there.

And then we started seeing people jumping off and gliding down.
Can you see them on the edge of the bridge?  They were amazing, but the
idea of climbing over the side of the bridge--with cars and trucks
traveling by was terrifying to me.

There are two in this picture.  It was hard to get them on camera.
When someone would jump, it seemed like it took them a long time
to pull the cord and activate their parasail.  Watching them float down
was beautiful.  We watched for while and I felt bad that the others
had missed it.

Add caption

Shots of the bridge

Views from the other side:
 

While on the other side, there was another guy watching the jumpers.  He mentioned that he had seen a girl in a white dress and a guy in a suit waiting to jump.  He assumed that they were going to get married on the way down. We waited for awhile to see them jump, but then gave up and walked across the bridge. We actually saw them with a couple of other guys standing on the other side of the road with their jumping backpacks on. I wanted to take a picture of them but thought that wasn't appropriate without their permission.  We decided to hurry a bit to see if we could see their jump.

 And as we were heading under the bridge at the other end, we heard screaming and got to the view area just in time to see the "bride and groom" land near the target.  These pictures are of their friends who followed their jumps with jumps of their own.

Just on top of the red shoot you can see the white dress and the black suit.
When they landed the bride grabbed the groom and didn't let go for awhile.
It turned out that this was a practice jump.  They were actually getting married
the next day and planned to jump AFTER their ceremony.
Not sure if the bride will do it again--she had a very loud scream.

Valerie with Mr. Perrine who gave his name to the bridge

The Snake River which created this deep gorge
Off to the right you can see a golf course which was built
within the valley by the river.

Lunch--sandwiches for us and McDonalds for the non-walkers

 Everyone loved our little stop.  In getting gas after this stop, we found this field of flags with a great wind.

We made it the rest of the way on Friday, September 6, and settled into our hotel in Ontario.